DEA-C01 Data Store Management Practice Question
A company runs an Amazon RDS for PostgreSQL instance that stores financial data. The company requires point-in-time recovery (PITR) with a retention period of 35 days. Additionally, the company needs to create a new database from a specific snapshot every night for testing. Which combination of actions should the data engineer take to meet these requirements?
⚠ Common exam trap
Watch out — candidates often confuse the purpose of Multi-AZ standby instances (which are not directly usable for testing) or assume that manual snapshots alone can provide PITR, but automated backups are strictly required for point-in-time recovery in RDS.
Answer choices
Why each option matters
Answer the question above first, then reveal the full breakdown to understand why each option is right or wrong.
Correct answer & explanation
✓
Enable automated backups with a 35-day retention period and create a manual snapshot each night for testing.
Automated backups in Amazon RDS for PostgreSQL support a maximum retention period of 35 days, which satisfies the PITR requirement. Additionally, creating a manual snapshot each night provides a stable, independent copy for testing without interfering with the automated backup schedule or the source database's performance.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✓
Enable automated backups with a 35-day retention period and create a manual snapshot each night for testing.
Why this is correct
Automated backups provide continuous PITR up to 35 days, meeting the retention requirement. Manual snapshots are independent of the backup retention window and can be created nightly, giving a stable source for the test database without affecting PITR.
- ✗
Create a read replica and promote it to a new instance for testing each night.
Why it's wrong here
A read replica replicates asynchronously and cannot provide point-in-time recovery to any chosen second within 35 days; promoting it nightly also breaks replication. It is tempting because replicas offload testing workloads, but snapshot-based nightly database creation and PITR require automated backups with a 35-day retention period.
- ✗
Enable Multi-AZ and use the standby instance for testing.
Why it's wrong here
A Multi-AZ standby is a synchronously replicated failover target that does not accept read or write connections, so it cannot host a test database. It is tempting because the standby is an available copy, but testing requires restoring a snapshot to a separate instance, and PITR needs automated backups.
- ✗
Disable automated backups to reduce storage costs and take manual snapshots with 35-day retention.
Why it's wrong here
Disabling automated backups removes the transaction logs that point-in-time recovery depends on, so the 35-day PITR requirement cannot be met regardless of manual snapshot retention. It is tempting because manual snapshots appear to cover retention, but they restore only to snapshot time, not to an arbitrary point.
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Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva
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